A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
Regardless of what your worldview is, I think we can all agree on the fact that something has gone horribly wrong with the human experience. Something is wrong. You can call it what you want to but for Christ followers, the term we use to describe this is sin. All throughout human history, every people group has tried to build a bridge back to perfection, back to eternity, back to God. In fact, every major world religion is built on that premise. But the unique claim of Christianity and the Gospel is that God built the bridge from heaven to earth because the gap between us and God was impassable and impossible to cross on our own. You see, we need someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and this is exactly why we celebrate Christmas every year. We celebrate the fact that out of God’s love for us, God built the bridge from heaven to earth by taking on flesh. God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to this world so that we could be united with God once more. Jesus Christ made it possible to anyone who would believe the gift of eternity. He is the bridge that connects us to God once more.
Friends, I cannot get over the Gospel. I do not have a category in my brain, let alone a language that I can use, to truly convey the overwhelming reality of the incarnation, that God became a man. I cannot wrap my brain around the fact that the same God that created the entire universe, heaven and earth, sky and sea, you and me, is the same God who stepped down off His Royal Throne and was born in a manger, into the messiness of this world. I cannot get over the fact that God would enter into the messiness of my life, die for me, and redeem me so that I could cross the bridge from this temporary dwelling place we call planet earth to my eternal home called heaven. The reality is that none of us are worthy of Jesus Christ; we are worthy of condemnation. But by the grace of God, instead, we get to walk on the bridge that leads us to the rest of our lives, to the gift of eternity.
As we prepare to celebrate the incarnation in just two days, may the stable still astonish us this Christmas. May we never get over the fact that the God of the universe chose to enter this world as a baby wrapped in rags so that we, you and me, could spend eternity with our Heavenly Father.
— Pastor Marge
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